Asexpected,AppleremovesFitbitproductsfromstores

It’s official. Apple is no longer selling Fitbit’s popular line of activity trackers, either online or at the company’s retail stores. The move was first rumored last month and comes just a few weeks after Fitbit told customers that it had no plans to integrate with Apple’s new Health app in iOS 8.

Apple had been selling the Fitbit Flex and Fitbit One. It continues to sell other fitness tracking products, including the UP from Jawbone and the Nike Fuelband.

To date, Fitbit controls 70 percent of the fitness tracking market.

Late last month, Fitbit unveiled a trio of iPhone-compatible fitness trackers, including the Charge, Charge HR, and Surge.

Given Fitbit’s decision not to support Apple’s Health app, I think it was only a matter of time before Apple stopped selling its products. Still, the bigger questions here are why did Fitbit make this decision, and why wasn’t Apple able to convince them to move in the opposite direction?

I think a lot of this has to do with the upcoming release of the Fitbit Surge, which it calls the “fitness superwatch.” The $249.95 device is never going to be confused with the upcoming Apple Watch. Still, it does offer a number of similar features.